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Abernathy born of pioneer businesses

Abernathy may have been established by the route of a railroad in 1909, but it was perpetuated by pioneer family businesses.

And for the past half century, a perpetual advocate for the community - O.C. "Hoppy" Toler - has worked not only to make a living in the town, but to advance its cause and preserve as much of its history as possible.

Some of Abernathy's early buildings came from the shutdown of the town of Bartonsite, which had been built seven miles to the northwest by rancher Joseph Barton.

When the railroad bypassed Barton's town in favor of a direct route from Canyon to Lubbock that included Abernathy, he agreed to trade some of Bartonsite's structures for land in the favored town.

Bartonsite, started on ranchland in 1907, had become a town with a population of 250 in two years. Most of it was gone almost as quickly after the railroad came to Abernathy.

Toler said one of the buildings that was moved to Abernathy went to Frederich "Fritz" Wilhelm Struve after he moved to the new town with his wife, Hermanna Richter Struve.

He operated a hardware business initially. Then, a brother, Benjamin Struve, bought into the business in 1918.

According to Toler, the family later added dry goods and other businesses. "Mr. Struve had the implement house across the street, and then he had the cheese factory. Abernathy was a kind of Struveville. The business lasted 89 years."

Toler's wife, Mona, the granddaughter of the pioneer Struves, helped Toler operate the business in its latter decades.

"He went into business in 1912, and Mona and I closed the business in 2001," Toler said of their semi-retirement.

The cheese factory had fallen by the wayside a few years after World War II ended.

"One saving grace of Abernathy was the cheese factory that Grandfather Struve started in 1929. He closed it up in 1951 - not because it wasn't making money, but because he couldn't get enough milk. People started raising cotton instead of milking cows," Toler said.

Toler, who also had a direct hand in the businesses of Abernathy, started at age 5. In a building that he now owns and that has become both a museum for city celebrations and an occasional dance floor for jamborees, Toler points out the different sections that were home to businesses of the past.

"McMaster Barber Shop had a shoe shine counter right there in the front of the barber shop. I started shining shoes here when I was 5. Then, I started carrying out groceries for Struve Grocery Store when I was in 7th grade. I went on and worked at Struve Grocery Store until I was a junior at Tech, then went to military service, stationed in Germany for two years, came back, finished Tech, and married Mona Struve."

Recounting the strong family ties to Abernathy, Toler said of the business activity, "It began as Struve-Ragland Hardware, then it became Struve Mercantile. Through the years, after Mr. Struve died, my father-in-law got the hardware and dry goods business; his sister got the men's store; Marvin Struve, a cousin, got the grocery department; and my father-in-law's brother, Rudolph, got the implement store."

When Toler and Mona closed their share of the business, the store was operating under the name of Struve Hardware and Dry Goods Inc.

But it's clear that the history of Abernathy is what fuels Toler's interests. He walks around the large building pointing out to a visitor a variety of vintage black-and-white photographs, paintings, and relics of the past. He even has a safe from an early-day bank, and inside its outer doors are the dates for the first bale of cotton ginned in the Abernathy area for given years.

"N.C. Hix started here in 1925, and went to 1945. He would record when the first bale of cotton was ginned - it was all the way from Aug. 15 to Nov. 1."

One photograph shows the inside of the old New View Theater, Toler explains. "They had a Men's Bible Class every Sunday morning. This picture was taken in 1946 - they had 246 people in there."

On another section of the wall is a photo from 1918 of a new school teacher in a group shot with the entire student body. In the photo, on the first row, is a barefoot first grader.

"My father-in-law didn't wear shoes to school, and the teacher got concerned the first week. He was a first grader, and everybody had shoes except Arno Struve. She didn't know anything about Arno Struve, so she found out where he lived, called on the family, and was prepared to buy him some shoes. Then she found out that his daddy owned the shoe store."

He said of another picture, "This was right out in front of the post office. That old tank right there is the water tank for the Struve Cheese Factory."

Toler has a cotton sack on one wall as a souvenir of what the hardware store used to sell. In another display is a small mechanical calculator that was used to determine the butterfat content of milk for the cheese factory.

"Here is a window shade cutter - we could cut window shades to any length."

He also has a draw-string package of Bull Durham tobacco complete with blank cigarette papers. "And here is an old hat steamer."

Toler keeps a telephone, too. It is like the phone in "It's a Wonderful Life," with a receiver on a cord that can be held up to an ear, and a stationary mouthpiece on a big box. You stood up to talk into the phone.

"Mr. Fritz Struve was one of the first guys in town to have a phone," he explained.

Toler lost his father to appendicitis when he was 3, but he still has a treasured gift - a toy Mickey Mouse - that his father had brought him.

"Dad bought it at the World's Fair in Dallas in 1936. It was one of the first. I framed it."

The toy has its own place on the wall.

The treasures he has in the museum are all parts of Toler's history of Abernathy.

A quote attributed to Pat Neff, governor from 1921-1925 and president of Baylor University from 1932-1947, can be applied to men like Toler: